To support the formal statewide review of the new national K–12 arts education standards (National Core Arts Standards), which were released in June 2014. This grant supports the work of a consultant team, who present recommendations to the Illinois State Board of Education concerning the adoption/adaption and implementation of these new state arts standards.
To support three years of the Terra Foundation American Sources Program: Teachers Using Artworks as Primary Sources, a year-long professional development program that annually serves up to 25 local teachers of history/social science, American studies, and English in grades 6–12. This program explores the use of American art from the Art Institute and Terra Foundation collections as primary-source documents and guides participants in developing curriculum.
To support the conference “‘In the Same Boat’: British and American Visual Culture during the Second World War.” This two-day event investigates the visual and cultural exchanges between the United States and Britain, identifying parallels between the way images and culture were politically mobilized and influenced by the social impacts of war itself.
To support the first phase of a collaborative project with Art in Translation (AIT), a scholarly journal published by the University of Edinburgh, which makes available English translations of writing on the visual arts. The project focuses on the reception of American visual arts in twentieth-century Europe, and the first phase consists of researching, sourcing and selecting significant writings on American art originally published in the twentieth century by art historians, artists, and critics in the thirty plus non-English European languages.
To support the conference “Kunsthallen. Architectures for the Continuous Contemporary in Europe and the US.” Co-organized by Universität Bern’s Department of Modern and Contemporary Art History and Kunsthalle Bern, this conference addresses how Kunsthallen—non-collecting art museums—have contributed to the history of contemporary art in Europe and the US.
To support the internationalization of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s American Art journal. The grant supports two additional years of the Terra Foundation International Essay Prize, which recognizes significant international contributions to the field of American art through the publication of an essay in the journal. Additionally, the grant supports the incorporation of an international scholar on the journal’s editorial board.
To support research travel, research assistance, and a two convenings in preparation for a 2018 exhibition about the work of photographer Kenneth Josephson and the development of conceptual photography in Chicago. The exhibition focuses on Kenneth Josephson’s role in the development of conceptual photography locally and nationally and on the unique local conditions that contributed to his practice of blurring design and fine art practices.
To support continued development of the Chicago Art History Initiative, which will culminate in a series of freshly conceived exhibitions and programs in Chicago in 2018. The funding allows for the hiring of a project manager, development of a website, and convenings with cultural partners.
To support ongoing planning activities related to the Chicago Art and Design Initiative in 2015. Funds are used to support convenings with advisors and cultural partners and to enable staff to work on project plans with a consulting art historian and cultural programmer. The initiative aims to deepen and expand understanding of the visual art and design that emerged from Chicago between the Great Fire (1871) and the close of the twentieth century.
To support Painting the Gospel: Black Public Art and Religion in Chicago, a book authored by Dr. Kymberly Pinder, Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico. The publication looks at the art connected with Chicago’s African American Christian churches, which have been key spaces of social, political, and religious significance from the Great Migration to the present.
To support a 2018 international scholarly conference on the history of Chicago design to be co-organized by the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This public conference brings 30 local, national, and international scholars to Chicago to examine an expanded history of Chicago design from the late nineteenth century through the twentieth century.
To support three seminars, in 2016 through 2018, on the history of Chicago design. Organized by the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Department of Art History, in collaboration with the School of Design and the Special Collections Department at the UIC Library, the seminars examine a range of design practices and discourses in Chicago.
